Barnardo’s Northern Ireland’s Family Learning and Integration Project (FLIP) began in 2015, funded by The National Lottery Community Fund.
FLIP was the evolution of a previous Barnardo’s NI service ‘Tuar Ceatha’ (1993-2015), and FLIP builds on that learning to focus on supporting a culture of learning and resilience with Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) families in South Belfast. FLIP uses holistic approaches to build the capacity of BAME families to gain skills and become more confident members of their communities, whilst celebrating their own language and cultural heritage.
FLIP supports BAME parents with children who are aged 0-11 years old, attending, or intending to attend, Holy Rosary Primary School or Fane Street Primary School in South Belfast. The overall long-term outcomes of the FLIP interventions are confident families actively engaging with their local communities, and better educational opportunities for BAME children. We want to highlight how FLIP, through each unique intervention, has developed and adapted to challenges faced in its first three years.
This report aims to highlight the lessons learned through implementing FLIP, and in particular those lessons which can be adapted and used by other services to improve the lives of children and families throughout Northern Ireland.